


Fight or Flight?

by aylamwrites



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Angst, Breakup, Cheating, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:33:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27949862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aylamwrites/pseuds/aylamwrites
Summary: Sometimes love can be toxic, yet many choose to fight for their relationships.Maeve is done fighting.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart), Ethan Ramsey/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 12





	Fight or Flight?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Hope ya'll are doing good! This fic was originally posted on my Tumblr @aylaramseycarrera   
> hope you enjoy it!

**Present**

A tempest of wind raged outside the tense undercurrent of their apartment where a blanket of velvety darkness poured above the fading skyline, slowly morphing into the, into a daunting ebony.

Maeve entered their home with a hush, silently slipping into the living room and plopping herself on the couch immediately, entangling her hands in her hair and massaging the pressure points where she felt her skull was about to rupture.

“How was your shift?” Ethan inquired from the kitchen, where he was stooped over the stove, managing the pasta with vegetables. The pleasant aroma filled her senses with every taut inhale.

“ _Eventful_.” She responded with a sigh, pushing herself up from the love seat. Maeve made her way towards him to examine the scene.

‘What are you making?”

“Dinner.” Ethan shrugged, staying quiet for a moment. “It’s...been a while since we have had dinner together.” He admits, turning his focus back to the pot.

Maeve sent her gaze onto the floor. “It has,” She mumbled. 

The two stayed in destable silence until Maeve light-headedly started to walk away, wincing as another wave of her migraine hit. Concerned, Ethan turned towards her with wide eyes;

“Are you ok?” “Headache.”

“You go freshen up, alright? I’ll put out an Advil for you,” She hated how he was saying his words so softly, how he was trying to hypnotize her into thinking everything was fine with the tone of his voice. She hated how it was threatening to work. 

Ethan placed a hand on her hip;His touch used to send a warm feeling over every inch of her body, making her heart pump in her eardrums, but now it just stung , sending flames of anger and blame to the tip of her tongue, which she bit to prevent herself from falling out of her calm demeanor. She tensed underneath him, retreating backwards with a small step. Nodding, she silently retreated to the bedroom.

There was no trace of last night- just like the living room, the mess she had stumbled upon hours earlier completely erased from physical existence as if nothing had happened. As if everything was normal. Like there wasn’t another woman in her bed last night.

It was pretty obvious to her that their old “normal” would never come back to them.

He betrayed her, and was acting like he never did. He was treating her as if their relationship wasn’t crashing down right in front of their eyes.

After washing the tear stained face and fixing her makeshift ponytail from last night, she went out to eat dinner.

She was going to try and forget she ever saw.

_What was the point of leaving him after I worked so hard to get him in the first place?_

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Morning**

Her keys jingled as she unlocked the door to their apartment with a heavy sigh. Preemptively, Maeve dreaded the instant feeling of displeasure that engulfed her whenever she was in his presence lately. She honestly would have stayed at work and completed her 24-hour shift, but Naveen noticed her exhaustion and had ordered her to go home, even after she persisted that she was ok.

The second her foot stepped into the threshold of their penthouse, her whole body sensed something was amiss - an off feeling surrounded her. A shiver of intuition ran through her spine as she took in the state of her home, the rays of early morning illuminating its disheveled state. Home was looking the complete opposite of its normal tidy state. .

One of Ethan’s shoes was left unceremoniously in the doorway, and the other one flipped over on its laces.

In the living room, an array of their prized throw pillows from the sofas scattered all over the floor, only inches away from their permanent spot on the crisp white leather.

In the kitchen, there were two glasses of wine placed on the counter. One was still half full and the other with not even a drop left. The former was tarnished with a stain of ruby red lips.

Maeve’s heart dropped to her stomach when she caught a glimpse of the strappy black stilettos that were knocked over on the tile of her kitchen.

_Did it get that bad? Did it hurt him that much that he would…_

Maeve took in a deep shaky breath. walking towards the bedroom where the door was half closed. The door didn’t need to be open for her to know what was in there; it was crystal clear what she was about to see. Peeking right in the doorway of the bedroom was a sheer, blush pink blouse flipped inside out. It most definitely was not Maeve’s. Her breath hitched in her throat as she plucked the offending fabric up with her thumb and index finger, examining it before abruptly dropping it back onto the floor.

Dreading what came next, she pushed the door open. It’s hinges creaked as it exposed her to the pile of distressed sheets that barely covered the nude figure of her sleeping boyfriend - her _partner_ , and the tanned backside of the woman that lay snuggled into his side. There was a woman, on the side of the bed she had deemed to be hers, cradled in the set of arms that Maeve had deemed to be _hers_ ; fitting into her space, her life, all so much more effortlessly than she ever had.

That was the moment when all time froze.

All the signals in her brain shut down. Her heart had stopped, her lungs unable to suck in any air.Maeve was paralyzed in her place; only her eyes had the strength to wander around, taking in the repulsing black lingerie and the other clothes that were thrown around the room. Her stormy irises roamed around until they halted at his face, crinkled and smushed against the mattress.

Her lips fell apart as she let out a silent yelp, her bones starting to shake her whole frame. She blinked; over and over and over again until she realized that this nightmarish scene wasn't about to go away - that it was not some sick dream. .The scene was undoubtedly _real._

_He slept with someone else._

Maeve tried her best not to disturb the two as she all too casually backed away, silent streams falling down her cheeks.

What was the point in waking them up? The poor girl probably didn’t even know Ethan wasn’t single. Maeve knew that Ethan was all too good at evading personal questions.

That’s why she just left- going out the way she came in from.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Present**

“Is dinner ready?” “I just finished.” He responded with a flat smile, handing her a red pill and a glass of water. Maeve stared at his palm, itracing every line and fingertip with her eyes. A dose of possessive jealousy burned in her throat, a cry of anger threatening to come flying out of her; She couldn't help but think of the fact that his hands were on someone else at dusk, his calloused fingers clutching onto someone else’s body.

He waited for her to take it, watching her eyes blankly ogel the pill. “ _Advil_. For your headache.” His voice snapped her out of her daze.

“Hm- thanks.” She took the tablet from his palm, throwing it back into her mouth and guzzling a large gulp of the water, before setting the glass on the counter.

“Of course.”

They silently shuffled to the dinner table where Ethan had set up silverware and wine. Maeve froze for a second when she saw the same two glasses he chose.

_The same glasses he got out for the woman last night_.

Ethan gently escorted her to the side, making way for himself to pull out the leather dining chair out for her to sit on. Ignoring him, she sat on the opposite end of the table, sitting as far away from him as possible on the small, six seater table. She could hear him sigh as he sat plopped himself into the seat in front of him.

Ethan poured himself a glass of red wine, then reached for hers, “Wine?”

She glanced up from her full plate, eying him up and down. She could swear she could still see the lip print the glass; little faint, streaks of that woman’s lips on the edge taunting her.

“Pass.”

Not even small talk could stay between them as they ate; at one point Ethan had stopped trying to get a conversation going, letting them eat in silence, which she greatly appreciated.

Maeve had barely touched her pasta, even though he made her favorite.

It was hard for her to have an appetite when all she could think about was how Ethan ate out another woman last night.

She kept her gaze on the Boston skyline, from the flickering lights to watching the cars below speed by. Anything to keep her from looking at him. Minutes passed and a genuinely exhausted yawn fell out of her.

Maeve pulled herself up from the table.

“I’m-” she pointed back towards the bedroom “I think I’m gonna go to sleep.”

Ethan turned to her, nodding. “You must be really tired.”

“I am.” Her response came out more discourteous than she intended to be. As she went to leave, she felt his soft, hesitant hold on her arm pulling her back. She glared at him, eyes shooting daggers, and he sighed;

_“Maeve…”_

She felt her voice crack as her shoulders slumped and she pulled out of his grasp.

“I'm tired, Ethan. I’m so...so t _ired._ ” Maeve squeaked, as a bottled sob broke free.

“Hey…” He got up from his seat, reaching to gather her in an embrace.

“I’m _exhausted_ , Ethan!” She hit his chest with her fists.

His eyes widened at her surprising force as he stumbled back, steadying himself with the back of a chair.

Maeve violently wiped her tears away, throwing her hands in the air. “I’m so so tired of pretending we’re ok - of pretending it’s easy to love you. Pretending that we didn’t fight last night, and the night before that and the night before that!” She let out a huff, “God, I’m tired of _you_ -you….y-y-you '' Maeve choked on her words. She stupidly looked into his eyes, before tearing them away and onto the ceiling with a definitive bite of her lip. “ _you had another woman in our bed last night.”_

“Maeve…” He reached out to her, but she pulled away once again.

“That glass,” She pointed to the empty glass he got out for her, “That’s the glass you gave her when you brought her over.”

She was in a rage. Weeks and weeks of feelings and disappointments bubbling over. she stomped over to the living room and forcefully grabbed the pillows from the couch and threw them where she remembered they laid on the ground.

“And these pillows?” She shook one of them tauntingle at him. “You probably pushed them away when you kissed her _senseless_ here!” All the times he’d done the same when they were together. All the times he did so before he asked her to move in, and after he said he wanted to share his life with her. She didn’t think he’d meant only 4 years of his life. She thought they were forever. That _he_ was forever.

She began to walk towards the bedroom. Alarms rang in Ethan’s mind as he frantically followed her in her antics.

“And here?” Maeve all but screamed as she slammed her hand against the mattress, sending a loud, unsatisfying thump through the condo. “This is where you had sex with her!”

His face was filled with shock, a small gasp leaving him as he was taken aback from the behaviour of her outburst.. from her outburst. Not ever in the 6 years they’ve known each other has she ever been like this. Guilt ran through his blood as the evnts of the last night came back to him in chips and pieces, though the amount of liquor he had heavily consumed the past evening made it hard for him to remember the details.

“Or maybe you just didn’t do it here!? Who knows! Maybe you fucked her on the counter, or the sofa, or up against that fucking window!” She let out a frustrated laugh, “Knowing you probably did it all.”

He let out a desperate, albeit frustrated, sigh, “Maeve, can you please just-”

She paused her frantic charade, turning to look him deviously in the eye;

“What, listen?” Another choked laugh broke out of her alongside a new set of tears. She shook her head as she spoke the honest truth, “Ethan, I can’t listen anymore. Because all I am going to hear when you make up excuses is that you cheated on me, in my bed and tried to cover up your guilt with a _plate of pasta_. I came home early to sleep next to _you_. Not to catch you red handed with someone other than myself in our bed!”

Maeve scoffed, retreating into the closet where she grabbed her faded gym bag, and started stuffing her clothes into it.

“I can explain, Maeve. Let’s just talk about this, love-” 

Maeve let out a humorless chuckle. Looking over her shoulder at the worry etched onto his face, she dropped the bag on the floor. Something about the way he was looking at her made her reroute. Stomping over to him and stabbing a finger into his chest she retorted;

“Don’t you dare try to call me ‘ _love_ ’.” Her head was cocked to her left side, looking him up and down. For the first time, Maeve did not recognize the person who’s hauntingly azure eyes gazed back at her. Maeve questioned in a broken whisper, “ _Do you even love me anymore_?”

“Maeve…” He trailed, watching as another stream of saltwater fell down her cheek. Instinctively, Ethan reached to cup her face, wiping the tear away with his thumb. He mirrored her tone, responding quietly and with such gentleness that for a split second she had forgotten of his betrayal, “Of course I love you, Maeve. _I love you_.”

______

**Last Night - Before**

“God damn it, Maeve!” Ethan slammed his palm onto the counter, causing a shuddering echo to pulse through the apartment. “Do you even love me anymore?”

She let out a sigh, full of exhaustion and defeat, letting go of her shoe laces and looking at him from the ottoman she was sitting at.

Another day brought another fight. A couple days ago it was about Ethan spending more hours at Edenbrook than he was at home with her. Today was the fact that she went out with Bryce for lunch, caused by Ethan’s insecurity.

They tried, _gosh_ , they tried to go back to normal, to communicate and to be happy; yet every time they started time they started to get a little better another gust of the empest of their spiraling relationship would hit them; each time making it harder and harder for the two to bond together once again. At this point, they were just delaying the inevitable.

And Maeve was tired of fighting.

“It's not about love, Ethan...”

He cut her off, forcibly demanding, “Tell me, Maeve.”

“I love you so much that it _hurts_.”

His brows furrowed. “Then…” Ethan’s tone went soft as he declared, “we can work on this. We can work on ourselves. We can fix this.”

A few quiet seconds passed before she responded. Soft and quiet, as if she was explaining the notion only to herself. “...I said I love you so much that it _hurts_.”

His blue eyes held so much confusion.

“I love you so much it hurts.” She tried again, hoping his erudite self could pick up on the subtext.

Picking up her hospital bag, she walked up to where he stood on the other side of the room and gazed into the eyes she adored more than anything.

“It _hurts_ ,” she whispered. “ _It hurts to love you_.”

=========================

**Present**

Maeve rolled her bloodshot eyes at his lawless words, “If you really loved me you wouldn’t sleep with someone else.”

“S _lept_. One time. It -”

“It doesn’t change anything.”

The fragile air hung between them for a hushed moment, almost as if time stopped and the world had been paused. The strong winds outside rattled the window, causing Maeve to flinch. She used the opportunity to wipe her tears away and turn her back on him.

_Fight or flight?_

As she walked back over to her half-packed bag Ethan felt her slip through his fingers.

She was fleeing from him,severing all ties. He could feel the ice emanating from her shoulders the moment she spun on her heels.

Panic started to rise up into his throat as he joined her in their closet, just in time to witness Maeve closing the zipper and slung the bag over her shoulder.

“It was a mistake, Maeve; she didn’t mean anything to me, I promise-!”

_Fight or flight?_

She pushed past him, ignoring him as she briskly made her way out the doorway and into the kitchen. As quickly as possible, she slipped on her winter boots and her favorite jacket, not caring for whatever else she left behind. All of that can be shipped later, for now she had all she needed in her arms. Ethan frantically followed her every moment, though no words came out of his mouth. He couldn’t find the right words.

Just as she unlocked the door to leave, he managed to squeak out;

_“Please don’t leave me, Maeve.”_

She glanced over her shoulder at his disconsolate figure for a final time;his sweat filled face as he ran a shaking hand through his scruffed hair. His oceanic eyes were overflowing with salt water, a wave of crushing guilt passing through him as he silently pleaded for her to stay; for her to choose to fight for him just one more time.

The question popped up in her head once again.

_Fight or flight?_

And this time, she knew what her answer would be.

“Bye, Dr.Ramsey.”

Maeve Covey was wholeheartedly _done_ with fighting their inevitable.


End file.
